The present invention generally relates to a control device, such as a mouse, and more particularly relates to multi-mode roller for a control device having a selectable smooth-roller mode and a ratchet-roller mode.
Control devices for computers and the like typically include mice, keyboards, joysticks, touch pads and the like for computer control. These control devices are typically used to control computer applications that typically include graphical objects that may be manipulated by the control device. Typical control devices often include a roller for computer application control, such as scrolling graphical objects displayed on the computer's monitor. Traditional rollers provide limited options for scrolling through relatively long documents, such as multi-page documents. Solutions for relatively fast multi-page scrolling have traditionally included manipulation of a graphical object, such as selecting and dragging a scroll bar, pressing scroll buttons or the like. These traditional solutions for multi-page scrolling include multiple manipulations of the control device to manipulate these graphical objects. Other solutions for multi-page scrolling at a relatively high rate include accelerated scrolling controlled by the control device, for example, via detection of relatively fast roller rotation, and providing accelerated scrolling based on the detected fast roller rotation.
There are a number of different designs for such rollers on a mouse or other device. Examples include Multipoint Technology Corporation U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,919, Microsoft U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,344, Apple Computer U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,313,230 and 5,095,303, Mouse Systems U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,530,455 and 5,446,481, Primax Electronics U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,568, and Logitech U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,369.
New rollers are needed that provide ratcheted scrolling and smooth scrolling for relatively fast computer manipulation, such as relatively fast scrolling through a document.